1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to lighted artificial trees and more specifically to artificial trees that are lighted by a fibre optic light source.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lighted artificial trees such as Christmas trees have been known in the art for many years. With the advent of fibre optical bundles, artificial trees have been lighted in the past by use of a single bundle of optical fibre illuminated by a single lamp. Color provided to the optical fibre was changed by rotating a transparent color disk between the end of the optical fibre bundle and the lamp. Due to the limited illuminating range of the single lamp the number of optical fibre bundles incorporated in such structure was restricted, thus limiting the size of the Christmas tree employing such construction.
The present invention provides a plurality of tree branch members and a treetop that are each individually lighted through the use of an optical fibre bundle and a lamp. Consequently, the present invention facilitates the manufacture of taller and fuller optical fibre lighted artificial Christmas trees. In contrast to use of a color disk for changing the color provided to the tree branches, the present invention includes a rotating cylindrically shaped transparent color film that travels between the ends of the optical fibre bundles and the lamps for the tree branches.
The present invention provides a fibre optic lighted artificial tree that comprises a trunk member, a base member for supporting said trunk member in a vertical position, a plurality of tree branch members associated with the trunk member, and a first fibre optic light source means having a plurality of fibre optic bundles and light sources so that each tree branch member is lighted by a separate fibre optic bundle and light source.
In a preferred embodiment, the lighted tree includes a treetop member seated in a receptacle mounted on an upper portion of said trunk member and said branch members are attached to said receptacle to extend downwardly therefrom. The treetop member is associated further with a second fibre optic light source means formed of a fibre optic bundle and light source separate from those of the first light source means for providing light to said treetop.
The first light source means of the preferred embodiment further includes a first coloring means interposed between each of said fibre optic bundles and said light sources for said tree members to vary the color of the light supplied to the tree branch members. The second light source means preferably also includes a second coloring means for varying the color of the light supplied to said treetop.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide illumination of an artificial tree in such fashion that the tree is not significantly limited in size or fullness due to the limitation of the light provided to the tree. Still further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification and the drawings which are described below.